Page 209 of Small Town Firsts
Laurie giggled more.
Ally swept in the bathroom and lifted Laurie onto her hip. That caused the wrap dress to shift and bunch in ways that had me shifting and bunching like a motherfucker.
I turned away. Christ. I’d need a cold shower myself if I didn’t find a distraction.
Watching Ally with my kid wasn’t going to work either. It might slow my roll sexually, but seeing them together churned me up in a different way altogether. Made me think impossible things. Like maybe we didn’t have to be friends who had a baby. Maybe we could be more. A couple. For real. With two children, instead of one.
A fucking family.
“Were you giving your dad a hard time again?” Ally swept Laurie’s sweaty blond hair back from her brow. “Today’s yourbig party. You don’t want the birthday fairy to hide all your presents.”
I winced. Laurie was half and half on believing such things. If she decided you weren’t telling the truth, she was apt to call you a big fat liar.
Delicate, my child was not.
“Birthday fairy?” Laurie screwed up her mouth and looked at me. “Daddy?”
I pointed at myself. “Are you asking if I’m the birthday fairy? Or asking if I know the birthday fairy?”
“Both. Real?” she demanded.
Ally sent me a secret smile over Laurie’s head and I would’ve sworn this was her form of payback for having the softest, fullest lips I’d ever kissed.
“Ally is the birthday fairy, know why?” I took advantage of Laurie’s curiosity to once again step foot into the bathroom. “She’s the one who made your party as magical as it’s going to be today. But you won’t get to enjoy it if you’re not clean. Dirty girls don’t get to play with their friends.”
Laurie sighed and tugged on one of Ally’s brown curls that had come loose from her updo. In the light from the window, all the red highlights in her hair made it look as if it were streaked with fire.
Christ, I was barely a dude anymore. Anytime now, I’d whip out paper that curled at the edges and start composing sonnets about the wonder of a summer’s morn.
Or Ally’s pussy, which probably meant I wasn’t quite ready to give up my man card yet.
“You do my bath?” she asked.
Ally stroked Laurie’s hair. “You sure you don’t want Daddy to do it? Or he can stay with us. How about that?”
Laurie shook her head and stuck out her lower lip, her most common expression these days.
I sighed. “I have to get the grill started anyway. Whose idea was it for me to feed hamburgers and hot dogs and veggie burgers to twenty kids and their parents, anyway?”
“Yours. I mentioned catering. You said you could handle a little grilling. That it was your manly duty.” Ally hid her smile in Laurie’s blond hair.
“I said nothing about my manly duty. Just that I like grilling.”
“So go grill then. We’ve got it under control.” Ally shifted Laurie in her arms, tipping her upside down until she squealed. “Don’t we, shortcake?”
“Yes!”
“Okay then. I can tell when I’m not wanted.” I turned in the doorway. “No bubbles this time though. It has to be a quick bath. Your friends will be here soon, and you don’t want me entertaining them.”
“Why not? You’re so good at playing horse.”
I narrowed my eyes at Ally. “Yeah, and if I throw out my back, guess who’ll be rubbing it later?”
Ally took long enough to reply that I wondered if what I’d said was more sexually explicit than I’d intended. Especially since Laurie was glancing between us as if we were the most fascinating people ever.
She’d definitely never seen us kiss before. A hug here or there, a playful shove, sure. But anything resembling making out, absolutely not.
“That’s what you think,” Ally finally responded. “I’d suggest you invest in some Icy Hot, pal.”
